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How to Copy Text From a Screenshot on iPhone (iOS 27)

Copy text from any iPhone screenshot with Live Text in Photos, Visual Intelligence or a Shortcuts action, plus what to do when the text will not select.

6 min read
Muhammed BasilFounder & maker of Pizazoo

To copy text from a screenshot on iPhone, open it in the Photos app, tap the Live Text button, touch and hold the text, then tap Copy Text (or Select All for everything). Live Text works on iPhone XS and later with iOS 15 or later, so every iPhone that runs iOS 26 or iOS 27 has it, and Apple says it uses on-device intelligence to recognize the text.

Here are the exact steps, the faster route right after you take a screenshot, and what to do when the text will not select.

How do I copy text from a screenshot in Photos?

These steps follow Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27:

  • Open Photos and tap the screenshot. You can see all of them under Collections > Media Types > Screenshots.
  • Tap the Live Text button (Apple's iOS 27 guide calls it the Detect Text button), then touch and hold the selected text.
  • Move the grab points to cover the text you want.
  • Tap Copy Text, or Select All to take everything in the screenshot.
  • Paste it into Notes, Messages, Mail or any other app.

Apple's Live Text support article also describes a shortcut: touch and hold a word directly, adjust the grab points, then tap Copy. The same menu offers Look Up, Translate, Search the web and Share. Depending on the content, quick actions appear at the bottom of the screen too, for things like calling a number, opening a website or converting a currency.

Can I copy text right after taking a screenshot?

In iOS 26 and iOS 27, a new screenshot opens full screen by default, with Markup, Share and Done along the top. What else you get depends on your iPhone:

  • iPhones with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 or later): since iOS 26 the screenshot screen doubles as Visual Intelligence. Apple's guide shows Ask, Translate and Search at the bottom, and the tools vary with the content, including Summarize, Read Aloud and Add to Calendar. Apple says you can use Visual Intelligence there to interact with text.
  • Other iPhones: tap Done, save the screenshot to Photos, then use Live Text as described above.

One privacy note: Search looks for similar items on the web, and Apple notes that Visual Intelligence search is subject to your search provider's terms and privacy policies. For private text such as account numbers, Live Text in Photos is the safer route.

If you prefer the old small preview, go to Settings > General > Screen Capture and turn off Full-Screen Previews. A thumbnail then appears in the lower-left corner, and tapping it opens the screenshot for cropping or Markup.

How do I get text from a screenshot into Notes?

Notes has a Scan Text option (in a note, tap the Attachments button, then Scan Text), but it reads text through the camera. That suits a printed page or another screen in front of you, not a screenshot already on your iPhone.

For a screenshot, copy the text with Live Text and paste it into the note. Once it is typed text, Notes search finds it like anything else you wrote.

Can Shortcuts pull the text out automatically?

Yes. The Extract Text from Image action in the Shortcuts app returns the text from an image using Live Text. Two setups are worth building:

  • From the share sheet: create a shortcut with Extract Text from Image, then Copy to Clipboard. Open its details and turn on Show in Share Sheet. In Photos, select one or more screenshots, tap Share, and choose the shortcut.
  • For your newest capture: start a shortcut with Get Latest Screenshots, then add Extract Text from Image and Copy to Clipboard. Run it from the Shortcuts app, your Home Screen or Siri.

When you run it on several screenshots, add Combine Text before copying so you get one block of text.

Why can't I select text in my screenshot?

  • Live Text may be off. Go to Settings > General > Language & Region and turn on Live Text.
  • Your language may not be supported. Live Text is not available in all regions or languages, so check Apple's iOS Feature Availability page. If yours is missing, our free Image to Text tool runs OCR in Safari, keeps the image on your device and has its own language list that includes Arabic and Hindi. Disclosure: we make Pizazoo and this free tool.
  • The text may be too small or low-contrast. Zoom in on the source before you capture, or capture just the part you need.

How do I find an old screenshot by the text in it?

Copying is easy once the screenshot is open. Finding the right one among thousands is harder. Photos search accepts text, such as an email address or phone number, which helps when you remember an exact detail.

If screenshots are where you keep receipts, error messages and confirmations, a dedicated text index saves the scrolling. Pizazoo for iPhone and iPad is free on the App Store (iOS 17 or later). Disclosure: we make Pizazoo. It runs OCR on every screenshot in your photo library on the device, and the text is searchable in the app, in iOS Spotlight and through Siri. Open a screenshot in Pizazoo and Live Text works there as well, so finding and copying happen in one place. More in how to search text inside screenshots on iPhone.

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